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How should we police the marketplace?

  • Option 1 - Keep as is now.

    Votes: 266 49.7%
  • Option 2 - Keep as is now - no extra ttoc access.

    Votes: 26 4.9%
  • Option 3 - Open cars for sale up to all.

    Votes: 90 16.8%
  • Option 4 - Open cars for sale up to all - no extra ttoc access.

    Votes: 34 6.4%
  • Option 5 - Remove all security restrictions.

    Votes: 119 22.2%
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Market Place Security Poll

40K views 223 replies 195 participants last post by  goodmunky 
#1 ·
With all of the unhappiness with the current regulations surrounding the market place the only thing we can do is to run a poll for all forum members to vote in.

There are a couple of options to consider:

Option 1 - Keep things the way they are now, ie members with a low post count cannot see the market place at all, and can also not send pm's. TTOC membership has a benefit of having market place and pm access.

Option 2 - Keep things the way they are now, ie members with a low post count cannot see the market place at all, and can also not send pm's. TTOC membership has no benefit of having market place and pm access so all forum users are the same.

Option 3 - Keep the parts for sale and items wanted closed to new members, but open up the cars for sale section to all. Open up pm's for all to enable everyone to contact sellers of cars. TTOC membership still has access to full market place.

Option 4 - Keep the parts for sale and items wanted closed to new members, but open up the cars for sale section to all. Open up pm's for all to enable everyone to contact sellers of cars. TTOC membership has no extra access to full market place.

Option 5 - Remove the security so all forum users can see the market place and use pm's. Display a disclaimer that if any problem arises with a sale the forum has no responsibility.

If you can please vote for your preference but to also post just to say you have voted. You don't have to state your vote but it will give us an idea of what type of members have voted. IT may be that mostly new members will vote to have no security to help them, but also the established members might be voting after seeing the problems we've had before to keep it in place.

Thanks.
 
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#2 ·
I'd keep it as it is Nick. If you're being open and honest then why the rush to get onto the market place? If there is some reason you need to get on then it can be done by joining the TTOC which at least shows some commitment and gives the club a bit more information with which to deal with any issues.

I can understand how it's less likely that someone coming along to either buy or sell a car will be a scammer, but it's far from impossible - and with the higher values of money involved the risks are much greater, so I don't see the sense in reducing the levels of protection.
 
#3 ·
Voted number 1
 
#4 ·
Voted number 3. I feel buying a car with the higher cost involved should make people be more aware and conscientious of their purchase. Been scammed a few times, and always refunded by Ebay, but I don't particularly think the TTOC should get involved as mediator.

Perhaps number 1 can be enforced in TTOC's member area and perhaps that's a better window for members to sell their cars. But unless TTF belongs to TTOC, number 1 is taking on too much responsibility imho.
 
#5 ·
I'd like to see the cars for sale section opened up to all.
This would be advantageous to sellers in giving another way of marketing their car; one which directly targets people who perhaps are looking for their first TT (and therefore don't have one to sell/PX) and who reason that buying from a club/forum member should get them an enthusiast owned car with the attendant benefits.
This would also address the comments from people who have come to the forum with the above clearly in mind.

Since a car purchase would (should) mean a visit to the seller by the buyer I see no difference in the risk to either party if the car is advertised on this forum or Auto Trader, PH or any other on-line medium.

Awkwardly though, I believe that withholding access to the PM function to new forum members is still a right and proper thing to do and one which adds significantly to the level of protection against scammers.

What is the view of the forum owners on this issue? TTFAdmin seems to have taken a long step backwards.

I haven't voted - yet. :)
 
#6 ·
Voted 5

All members should be able to view, PM and buy.
Only established members can (post an advert) sell items.

How the established member is decided should be PLAIN FOR ALL TO SEE, if it's X amount of posts then fine, but tell the membership what this number is!!
IMO 50 posts would be a fair number.
 
#8 ·
PM access is the means by which most scams were performed, playing confidence tricks on members they spotted wanting parts or services. We could not monitor this. Newbie instant access to this facility is an opportunist scammers dream - taking advantage of member's trust in this community. Once we had reports of fraud we could ban a scammer but they would instantly re-join with a new and unknown user name and start again. A delay or minimum post count stops this happening!

Verified TTOC members are a low risk to the forum community because their identity, address and bank details are checked and verified - coming with that is the care of ownership - an asset to a buyer.

Involvement by contribution to the forum is what makes this forum so good. It stands to reason that the established and experienced member majority should speak on this issue. This forum is the result of your input.
 
#11 ·
As it was something I mentioned in the other post, voted 3. Going to be less likely that you can be scammed when buying/selling a car.

Only reservation is if there is a better option than giving pm acces to contact seller? Open those posts to comments?
 
#18 ·
Voted 4.

It encourages prospective members to join but also view cars for sale that they can assume have been looked after. However parts sales should retain the restrictions so that we don't get people attempting to scam.

It's easy to scam a part but not so easy to scam a car. Nobody in their right mind would part with money without viewing it and no owner would hand over the keys without the funds being in the bank. Getting to know the seller/buyer and coming to some mutually agreeable financial arrangement outside of the forum would be an acceptable way to progress a transaction for a vehicle. :)
 
#19 ·
Hi Folks - I'm a long standing member of the site, but really only post when we've an issue with the TT always solved by John-h ! however I do browse parts from time to time, to see possible upgrades etc.

My suggestion would be to make all Market Place areas viewable to all users (including people not logged in.) This would be a benefit to the sellers (maximizes viewings, which might generate a sale). However I would block anyone with less than 50 posts, from actually posting in those sections. If someone with less than 50 posts, still wants to sell a car etc, they could pay a fee, i.e. like autotrader. There are side effects to this setup, you will get people spamming certain areas of the site, however you could take the NonTT related area, and make any posts in that area, not count to total posts. Thus removing people posting crap to get their count up.

Anyway we've/I've run this setup on a few other car sites, and its worked ok, however there is a bit extra work required for the Mods, to keep an eye on spammers, but also members as well to report obvious spam posters.

My 2 cents/pence ! Anyway I'm audi-here :D
 
#20 ·
Voted 3 or me, if people are looking to buy a TT then they would come onto the forum looking for nice examples for sale only to find they cant view them.....

people on here trying to sell TT's to members that already have one.......

Its still safe as how can you get scammed when selling your, if your advertising it more than likely will be on pistonheads to so if they wanted to try a scam they could off there or autotrader etc etc
 
#21 ·
I'm probably far from the norm...been forum member long time but rarely post...3 posts and member since 2008. So I voted for 5 because I am not a spammer or scammer and don't think I should be restricted just because I use the forum more for informational purposes than socializing. Maybe a time limit rather than a post limit? I mean it would be easy to post to 50 forum topics in just a little while simple "cool" or "lol" on the jokes or flame forum...but someone who has been a forum member for say 6 months + would most likely not be a scammer. It's a hard choice...there are a lot of dishonest people out there. :?
 
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